Fallen (1998) film review

A modern day crime thriller, based around a demonic concept with noir undertones. Fallen has a bit of something for everyone, in its multiple genre’d approach to the crime thriller. However, the very thing that separates it from other crime thrillers is the very thing holding it back from greatness.

Fallen, is one of those films that just doesn’t know how exactly it wants to present itself. Whether to market itself as a crime drama, mystery, action or supernatural thriller is completely unknown to it. It covers a wide range of genres in its given two hours, and in doing so places it’s eggs in several different baskets. Thus allowing itself to bring in interest from many different levels, but also hindering itself from truly hitting a home run in any one given area, as it is too thinly spread around them all.

This film presents fairly mediocre direction and storytelling abilities, but is massively enhanced by the strength of its great cast and enticing base premise that remains completely watchable throughout. I think it would only be fair to call out such a strong cast, featuring Denzel Washington harnessing the lead whilst being surrounded by heaps of top tier talent. John Goodman, James Gandolfini, Donald Sutherland, and the criminally underrated Elias Koteas. However, sadly as is the case with most crime films of this era, the females in the cast are sorely underused and underrepresented. As far as I can remember there are only two named females in this film, portrayed by Embeth Davidtz, and Aida Turturro.

The chemistry between John Goodman, and Denzel Washington. Wow. Just from this film, I can say with confidence if those two ever made a cop show together, it would be a work of art. They bounce off one another, as they play detective partners of 12 years. If I was none the wiser, I would believe they JD been friends for this amount of time prior. Their bond truly made the film.

The basic concept of this picture is that Washington, a celebrated homicide detective whom has placed many a convict on death row. Now must contend with a supernatural evil, and recurring murders that follow the very same pattern of a possessed serial killer named Reese. The catch, Reese gets executed at the very start of the film, so who’s committing the crimes?

I do apologise if the contrasting details of this description seem like a twist spoiler as compared to slightly vaguer descriptions, but please note it is actually not at all anything that is remotely hidden from the very beginning of the movie. The supernatural elements are made clear from the opening scenes, which to me, were probably one of the biggest drawback of an otherwise solidly entertaining crime thriller. The difference between the mystery of the advertised synopsis, and the reality quickly shown through the first few scenes accurately highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the multi-genre approach.

Denzel Washington is unequivocally, one of the greatest actors of all time. You just can’t dispute it. He is widely respected, and I hope with a strong passion that he continues to receive the very same level of respect for decades to follow. He is constantly effortlessly cool (whilst typically retaining a relatable persona), his characters are always so in touch with the tone of each and every scene that they feel perfectly fitted, and completely natural. Washington has been in a rather ranging variety of exceptional films, decent films, and notably a few bad ones, but one thing that always stays the same is his level of performance in each. They tend to elevate just about everything he works on, from the entire quality of the film to the quality of those around him. It fills me with joy that his son has always proven to the world his calibre of acting, and perhaps one day he can match if not exceed that of his father.

Overall, Fallen is solid time spent in front of a screen if you are willing to see a class of heads between a decent crime drama, and a supernatural thriller. Along with a few second scene, that has gone on to become one of the most common gif’s I see on Twitter from day to day, this film doesn’t contain too many particularly memorable individual snipers. Apart from an astounding opening execution sequence starring Elias Koteas deliver a shrewdly ironic cover of “Time is on My Side” to the viewing chambers spectator gallery. At the same time, this feature never feels boring, nor tedious. This is most likely due to the wide variety of genres, and styles in play.

In summary, the cast truly makes this film, the execution is average, and the multi-genre approach is both a blessing and curse that somewhat keeps the movie from being incredible but also gives it enough dimension to keep it from feeling tedious when the plot starts to unravel a little.

3.5* 7/10

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